Riding the Rails
Last night I had a dream that could be interpreted many different ways and rather than interpret it here, I just wanted to relate it - because my spiritual teacher recommended that I record it before I forget the details. He tells me not to discount my dreams because there may be more meaning than I realize.
So it was that I was walking along with friends - don't know who they were - and they pointed out a building that was for sale for a very low price considering what it was and the condition it was in. I was trying to answer the question of why it might be such a low price and realized I didn't know the answer. So I decided to investigate. The building was stone and very institutional-looking. It looked like a place of business. And the feeling and comment made was that something creepy might have happened there, perhaps the seller of the building needed to get rid of the association to things he had done there.
As I went to investigate, I stepped onto an escalator. When I was about halfway down the escalator, the scenery around me changed. Instead of being a stone building surrounding me, there were brightly colored carpets and walls and decorations and loud music and ambience. There was a concession stand and there were lots of people w/ brightly colored clothes. It looked like the lobby of a movie theater and I wandered into the room and looked around but I didn't know anyone and didn't know what I was doing there, so I turned around and got on the escalator to return back to the sidewalk.
But the escalator didn't take me to the sidewalk. It took me to another dimension where there were pirates and pirate ships in the distance and I was in a pub of some sort and I didn't know what I was doing there and didn't fit in, and was a little unsettled. I just wanted to get through there without being assaulted or anything else bad happening to me.
Then I was back on the escalator and I noticed a woman on the escalator going the opposite direction. She was attractive and polite but not helpful and not approachable at all. I later found out she was a hostess and it was her job to ride the escalators and make people feel welcome. There had been other hostesses too, but they had all been fired and she was the only one left. I don't know why.
I got off the escalator on another floor and there was a sign stating that the point of that place was to have free symphony concerts. The man next to me was excited and got off on that floor and stayed, but I was cautious and learned that it was not a good thing to be there because the effect of the concert was that it lulled people to sleep and then they were taken advantage of by other people. In fact, while I was on the escalator going down from that place, I saw a man run away terrified from the concert hall and he was so scared that he jumped halfway up the escalator in one leap. It was not a safe place.
None of the places the escalator visited seemed safe to me. They all had lots of people and there was always an eerie feeling about the places it went. Whether I went up a floor or down a floor, there was always something to avoid, and always something unsettling about the places. The people riding the escalators with me were a mixture of people who were just curious, lost, riding for the excitement of the adventure, or afraid. Some people called it "riding the rails" and did it for fun for hours or days - no one had control over how long it would take to get back home and there was always the possiblity you wouldn't make it back home. It wasn't my idea of fun and I was afraid, but I had to continue exploring to try to find my way home. I couldn't just give up.
Some of the places were airports - a lot of them seemed to be airports, actually. And I didn't even get onto those floors when I saw what they were. I didn't want to risk getting so lost I wouldn't be able to even find the escalators.
Other floors were beaches or waterfronts. There were ships on some of them.
Some of them were full of pickpockets or people who were untrustworthy and there was a feeling of unsafety - "Just don't make eye contact and just keep walking," someone next to me said.
On one floor, there was a glass shelter, like you find at bus stops and it was along side of the rails. There was a path to the waterfront and there were only children and ducks when you got to the water. It was a strange combination of things that should be peaceful but were not. The children were like Sirens and it felt like if you fell for their charms, you would be overtaken and never make it out of there. It was one of the most compelling and frightening places I went on the escalator last night.
I met some people who were friendly and felt safe for a time, but they always seemed to get off the escalator eventually and part ways with me whether it was after walking into a dimension for a ways and they wanted to stay, or when we were at the place they decided to get off the rails and I didn't want to - because none of the dimensions were home and I was really only interested in getting home where I felt safe. I wasn't really in the mood to explore anymore. I was tired. I hadn't intended to start out on this journey in the first place.
Some of the time I felt like I was a hostess and not getting paid for it, because i was friendly and quiet and smiled at people like she did, and because I wasn't getting off the rails onto the floors - just like I was working and that was my job. In fact, I started to look at it like it was my job, just to keep riding escalators and to not explore any of the places. It got to the point that I didn't even want to see what was coming up next because I knew it would be disappointing - it wouldn't be what I wanted and it would look deceitfully peaceful until I'd find out some flaw. So I kept riding the rails and staring at my feet until I woke up. And I woke up stressed.
So it was that I was walking along with friends - don't know who they were - and they pointed out a building that was for sale for a very low price considering what it was and the condition it was in. I was trying to answer the question of why it might be such a low price and realized I didn't know the answer. So I decided to investigate. The building was stone and very institutional-looking. It looked like a place of business. And the feeling and comment made was that something creepy might have happened there, perhaps the seller of the building needed to get rid of the association to things he had done there.
As I went to investigate, I stepped onto an escalator. When I was about halfway down the escalator, the scenery around me changed. Instead of being a stone building surrounding me, there were brightly colored carpets and walls and decorations and loud music and ambience. There was a concession stand and there were lots of people w/ brightly colored clothes. It looked like the lobby of a movie theater and I wandered into the room and looked around but I didn't know anyone and didn't know what I was doing there, so I turned around and got on the escalator to return back to the sidewalk.
But the escalator didn't take me to the sidewalk. It took me to another dimension where there were pirates and pirate ships in the distance and I was in a pub of some sort and I didn't know what I was doing there and didn't fit in, and was a little unsettled. I just wanted to get through there without being assaulted or anything else bad happening to me.
Then I was back on the escalator and I noticed a woman on the escalator going the opposite direction. She was attractive and polite but not helpful and not approachable at all. I later found out she was a hostess and it was her job to ride the escalators and make people feel welcome. There had been other hostesses too, but they had all been fired and she was the only one left. I don't know why.
I got off the escalator on another floor and there was a sign stating that the point of that place was to have free symphony concerts. The man next to me was excited and got off on that floor and stayed, but I was cautious and learned that it was not a good thing to be there because the effect of the concert was that it lulled people to sleep and then they were taken advantage of by other people. In fact, while I was on the escalator going down from that place, I saw a man run away terrified from the concert hall and he was so scared that he jumped halfway up the escalator in one leap. It was not a safe place.
None of the places the escalator visited seemed safe to me. They all had lots of people and there was always an eerie feeling about the places it went. Whether I went up a floor or down a floor, there was always something to avoid, and always something unsettling about the places. The people riding the escalators with me were a mixture of people who were just curious, lost, riding for the excitement of the adventure, or afraid. Some people called it "riding the rails" and did it for fun for hours or days - no one had control over how long it would take to get back home and there was always the possiblity you wouldn't make it back home. It wasn't my idea of fun and I was afraid, but I had to continue exploring to try to find my way home. I couldn't just give up.
Some of the places were airports - a lot of them seemed to be airports, actually. And I didn't even get onto those floors when I saw what they were. I didn't want to risk getting so lost I wouldn't be able to even find the escalators.
Other floors were beaches or waterfronts. There were ships on some of them.
Some of them were full of pickpockets or people who were untrustworthy and there was a feeling of unsafety - "Just don't make eye contact and just keep walking," someone next to me said.
On one floor, there was a glass shelter, like you find at bus stops and it was along side of the rails. There was a path to the waterfront and there were only children and ducks when you got to the water. It was a strange combination of things that should be peaceful but were not. The children were like Sirens and it felt like if you fell for their charms, you would be overtaken and never make it out of there. It was one of the most compelling and frightening places I went on the escalator last night.
I met some people who were friendly and felt safe for a time, but they always seemed to get off the escalator eventually and part ways with me whether it was after walking into a dimension for a ways and they wanted to stay, or when we were at the place they decided to get off the rails and I didn't want to - because none of the dimensions were home and I was really only interested in getting home where I felt safe. I wasn't really in the mood to explore anymore. I was tired. I hadn't intended to start out on this journey in the first place.
Some of the time I felt like I was a hostess and not getting paid for it, because i was friendly and quiet and smiled at people like she did, and because I wasn't getting off the rails onto the floors - just like I was working and that was my job. In fact, I started to look at it like it was my job, just to keep riding escalators and to not explore any of the places. It got to the point that I didn't even want to see what was coming up next because I knew it would be disappointing - it wouldn't be what I wanted and it would look deceitfully peaceful until I'd find out some flaw. So I kept riding the rails and staring at my feet until I woke up. And I woke up stressed.